We all have accounts on multiple online services like Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, etc, all of which can send alerts and notifications. If getting a handle on all of these is getting a bit too labor intensive then check out ‘Chime’, a very handy extension for Chrome that allows users to receive notifications from multiple online services in a single stream, and to manage all of them from a single dashboard.
The notifications are displayed as popup dialogs in Google Chrome or in the system tray area. The best thing about the extension is that you do not have to authorize it on any service as it does not post anything on your news feed. Just install the extension and you are good to go.
Currently, Chime supports the following services: Facebook, Gmail/Google+, Twitter, Reddit, Quora, Stack Overflow. LinkedIn and Flickr.
Using Chime for Google Chrome
The setup screen shows you all the services that you are signed in to and also the ones where you aren’t signed in to. To make the extension work, make sure you logged in to the specific service you want to integrate; for example, if you want to show notifications from Facebook, login to your Facebook account and check the Facebook icon in Chime. Just click on the Continue button to start using Chime.
Once selected, you will receive notifications in Chrome’s near the extension’s icon, or on your desktop near the system tray if Chrome is minimized. The notifications are color coded to reflect the service they are coming from. You can manually prompt your notification history if you click on the extension icon in the Chrome toolbar, and clicking on any one notification will open the specific service in a new tab.
To view all the notifications you have received, just right click on the extension icon and go to Chime options. it will show you all the notifications as well as options to select more services.
In Conclusion
Chime is a must have Chrome extension for anyone who would like to efficiently manage notifications from different online services. It does what it says in a very user friendly manner.
However, the one thing that makes Chime so easy to install – the fact that it does not require permission to access your accounts directly – also means that the only notifications that you will get at any one time are for those services that you happen to be logged into. If you have multiple accounts from a single service (such as multiple gmail accounts), you will only receive notifications for one of them at any one time, even when you might assume – falsely – that you are up to date on all the activity that is going on in your accounts.
Another thing that is missing is a way to filter notifications; for example, showing notifications from Facebook only in the settings page or viewing them in their own Facebook-only tab.
Nonetheless, it’s an excellent extension that can make life easier for users.
